Greetings TeaFriends and welcome to a new TeaDay!. But today we will look back. Please stop in and share what is in your cup with us thrughout the day. Also be sure to vote and discuss the topic of the day.

I mostly drink greens, oolongs, and pu-erh, so no surprises here. I try to drink more greens than usual during the cold months in the belief that it helps combat colds and other bothersome things. happy new year, happy tea drinking, and see ya later.

Gyokuro was the winner for me - specifically Tsuru Jirushu from O-Cha, but perhaps the true winner was the teaware. I purchased the shiboridashi set from O-Cha and having everything designed to work together and work for Gyokuro made a big difference. I'm able to do the whole preheating and careful steeping routine without feeling as if I'm in chem lab!

I normally like participating in these, but I think I honestly need to say most the teas I had in December were pretty standard ( I am not counting MTR 60's Shui Xian as that is still going strong a few days into January).

Mine was the Organic Watsuka Sencha from O-Cha. It started out as a bit of a disappointment for me. However, after a few more sessions with it, it either grew on me or I managed to get the best out of this tea with some slight modifications in brewing (especially using about 1.5x as much leaf as I normally do). I actually started experimenting with using a (roughly 50 50) mix of hard water and soft water with some really good results! I've been brewing my tea like this for the past two weeks or so. I might actually keep doing this.

So in the end, I've had many delicious steeps of this tea. They're not selling it anymore or what they had of it has been sold out. Not sure if I would have bought it again but it's good to see that not all is lost when the first few sessions don't turn out so great.

Tea Forte' organic Earl Grey - tho' Earl Earl Grey has long been a favorite of mine, this one is super fragrant and soooo delicious! Also discovered Rooibos, which I find a wonderfully hearty, caffeine-free herb tea, great to drink on a winter evening.

No tea of the month for December: lots of good tea sessions, morning sencha, afternoon oolongs, evening puerhs, another session or two with the marvelous Gu Zhu Zi Sun green tea from Norbu, a really fine session with the loose 2009 Lao Ban Zhang mao cha from Norbu, an excellent session finishing off the Osmanthus fragrance Dan Cong from TeaHabitat, some very nice 'Kirameki' sencha from O-Cha, and a very nice session with a fresh box of Hankook's Hwang Cha, but no one that I drank several times or that was so far above the rest. It really was quite a good tea month.

What stood out more in December was Teaware--a new guinomi, a recent session where I finally shot several newer teapots and cups and a few teas (photos still not all finished/posted yet). And yesterday's teaDay (yes, it was January, but just barely!) included a surprise discovery of what appears to be a quite large 'yixing' pot, with matching cups, among the kitchen gadgets stuffed into every possible nook and cranny of my dad's den. It is unlabelled, and there is no packaging with it to give any clue when or how he obtained it. I'll be posting pictures later in the Yixing topic.

Ah, but alas! Ski season (and therefore race conditioning/training for me) picked up through early December and are now in full swing! I honestly didn't have time for more than a few brews all month with all the coming and going and running about. Tonight though, I have a rare and precious day off, and I plan to celebrate it with a nice, long session with some black tea-- or maybe the oolong I'm almost out of.